Steve Jobs said in a 2007 interview, "People want to own their music. The subscription model has failed so far... never say never, but customers don't seem to be interested in it." Looking just at the surface of iTunes' current state, Apple's (AAPL -1.22%) former CEO seems to be right. iTunes is a $17 billion a year business. And this year, the company will see its 100 billionth download.
Well, it seems Jobs was wrong. When you look at the history of Pandora (P), it looks like the subscription model is here to stay. Not only did Pandora go public in 2010, but it also has over 200 million registered users. Its daily active users are still growing and stands at 65 million. Additionally, the company's revenues have grown by 50% the last year. It's no wonder that Google (GOOGL -1.23%) is trying to get in on this space with its own streaming service.
While this is all great news for Pandora, the reality is that Pandora lost its innovative luster. Instead, there's a new company on the market that Pandora didn't forsee: Spotify.
By tapping into Facebook's (META -4.13%) open graph and letting its users share music seamlessly between friends, Spotify has garnered more users faster in the U.S. and across the world. In the video below, Fool contributor Kevin Chen reveals a few other key metrics proving why this social music company is the top dog in the space today.
